The Lost Carnival
by Bonnie from Freddy's
Summary: Out of all the stories that R. L. Stine wrote, there was one he forgot...until it was opened. Now face to face with someone he had pushed to the back of his mind, he has to both repair broken parts of their past and lock all the monsters back into the books. This story has music from FNaF in it, but I don't consider this to be a crossover.
1. Intro

{Theodore's POV}

 _Cold. Hard. Under my hands. My body. What hap...where was I? What...one second I was in darkness, and now…_

I shook my head, trying to clear the fog that was slowing my thoughts. I was on my hands and knees on some...surface. One that seemed vaguely familiar.

I raised one of my hands from the surface. It glistened, as if tiny lights had been trapped in my palm. I pressed my hand to my face, and sat back with shock.

My face was...wet. Yes, that was the term. Wet. Water. I looked back down at the surface I was on. It looked grainy, and when I dragged a finger across it, it felt grainy too. Looking up, I took in my surroundings.

Buildings. Big buildings. Lampposts. Utility poles with telephone wires. Overturned cars and frozen people. I was on a road. It was then I realized.

I was out of the book.

Overjoyed, I began to quietly laugh. My voice-box crackled and I ran a few test laughs and pre-recorded scripts to warm it up. As I was finishing, a disturbing thought bloomed in the back of my mind and crept into my current thoughts. I was out of the book. But, I was not the only...monster, in that book. _He_ was there too. If I got out, he would have gotten out too.

 _So where is-?_

"Welcome back, Teddy." I stiffened, my endo-skeleton creaking with age as I turned to look behind me. Suit perfectly tailored, the red flower corsage still in bloom. Plastic hair without a scratch. Wood polished to a sheen. My jaw snapped closed with a clink.

"Slappy," His name hissed out of my mouth, drenched in a permanent coat of venom.

"Did you miss me, Teddy?" The ventriloquist doll taunted me with his favorite nickname of mine.

"To think that I actually did at one point makes me want to retch," I kept my eyes locked on his, imagining that I was boring two holes through his head. I had missed him at one point. And I regretted doing so.

"You did? That's, quite a shock," He said with mock surprise as his eyebrows shot up his forehead.

"Trust me, it didn't last long," I shifted my body so that my midsection wasn't uncomfortably twisted around. Now on my hands and knees facing him, I was about to stand up, when he spoke again.

"You may not have missed me, Teddy, but I sure missed you," I stilled my movements as Slappy reached into the inside pocket of his suit. My mouth fell open when he pulled out a cassette tape. The label, still after years of age, clearly read " _Track 2 -_ _Emotions"._ I gasped when I noticed the two tape cassette player behind him. I knew that player. I could clearly see my name scratched in calligraphy along the top.

Chuckling, he turned and pulled it closer so that it was next to him. He looked at me, and winked. It was only then that I realized what he was going to do.

"No, no, don-!" My voice caught as he slid the tape into the player. My body fell to the ground, my face inches from his shoes. My hand grabbed for the player, and he pulled it away. I closed it in defeat, and let it fall the ground. He kneeled down next to me, chuckling.

"Yes I have," He gave my head a pat that was none too gentle, as my emotions already started to stir and multiply, even with no music. There was no end. Even after being trapped in a book for years, he still tortured me. There was no end.

As tears of oil began to trickle down my face, a sob racked my already exhausted body.

I bit back a second sob as he pressed ' _Play'_.

There was no end.


	2. Chapter 1 - Old friends, hurt friends

Everyone flew forward in their seats as the car crashed into the building.

Stine rubbed his forehead where it had hit the windshield and squinted his face a few times, as the teenagers groaned their pain.

"Is everyone okay?" he asked, turning around in his seat.

"Yeah, I'm okay," said Hannah from the passenger seat.

"Yeah," replied Zach, his body wedged between the two front seats.

"...ow…" Champ unstuck his face from the back of Stine's headrest, holding his nose. Stine rolled his eyes, when a roar came from behind them. Everyone's heads turned as the giant praying mantis appeared around the corner. Stine was the first to move.

"Everyone, out of the car! Go, go, go!" Everyone raced to get out of the vehicle. Zach wiggled out from between the seats, and Champ was still holding his nose, which was now beginning to bleed. The car had crashed into a partially destroyed arcade. The group ran through the non-existent doors just as the praying mantis picked up the car and shoved it sideways into the opening.

"We're trapped," Hannah squeaked.

"Is there a door out?" Zach asked.

"Oh, God," Champ clutched Zach's shoulder.

"What 'Oh, God'? Is there no door?" Zach looked at Champ over his shoulder.

"What door?" Champ asked.

"Another door out."

"Yeah there's another door."

"Well, where is it?" Stine held his hand out in exasperation.

"Out back," Champ jabbed his thumb over his shoulder. Hannah sprinted towards the back. Zach pulled Champ's hand from his shoulder and followed her. Stine and Champ followed behind.

They came to a door that was unlabeled, but was next to a hallway that went to the left.

"Which way?" Zach asked Champ.

"Down the hall!" Champ pointed to the hall, and jogged to Zach's side. They ran down the hall, shrouded in darkness, save for one light, which was flickering faintly.

As they passed the light, a shadow detached itself from the wall. It moved to the center of the hallway, just out of reach of the flickering light.

As the shadow watched the group run down the hall, a faint hiss of air escaped it's mouth. If the group had looked behind them at that moment, they would have only seen two glowing orbs that were the shadow's eyes.

"This is the door!" Champ pointed to the door as they reached the end of the hall.

"Like we couldn't have guessed," Stine commented. Champ ran to the door and tried to push it open. It wouldn't budge. He tried jiggling the handle. It still wouldn't open. Lastly he tried moving the bolt in the door. It didn't move an inch.

"It's locked," Champ whimpered.

"You're joking," Hannah breathed. Zach moved to the door, and tried to move the bolt. He ran his hands over it, and when he reached where the bolt latched to the frame, he felt something.

"There's a padlock."

"Great," muttered Stine. Champ thought for a moment.

"If there's a lock, then there must be a key."

"Well, obviously."

Everyone jumped at the voice. I had come from behind them, but when they turned, all they saw was darkness. Until the light turned on.

From where he sat, perched on top of the only arcade game in the hall, the light illuminated his silhouette, while keeping his face shrouded in shadow. But the group didn't need to see his face. They recognized his voice well enough.

"I see you've met my insect friend," Slappy mused.

"Yes, Slappy, we did," Stine adjusted his glasses on his face.

"Isn't he pleasant?" the doll asked.

"That's not the word I would use," Zach said as he discreetly pulled a paper clip from his pocket.

"You mentioned something about, a key?"

"What of it?" Stine kept his eyes on Slappy.

"Perhaps you meant, this one?" Slappy looked at the key in his hand, raising his eyebrows. Stine groaned.

"Slappy, give me the key."

"So you can leave? I don't think so," Slappy shook his head as he slid the key into his suit pocket.

"You see Stine, being trapped in one of your books gets old after a while. Same old story, same old people. It gets boring, and when you do let us out, you immediately suck us back in. And we're getting tired of it."

"I only did so to keep you from destroying the town I was living in," Stine pleaded.

"I wasn't talking about the other monsters, Stine."

Stine's eyes widened with realization. He peered down the hallway, squinting to see in the dark. After a moment, he exhaled, regained his composure, and looked at Slappy.

"Where is he, Slappy?" the author's voice was stern, as if he were a parent scolding his child.

Slappy cocked his head, and reaching behind him, pulled a tape player to his side. Pressing a button, music began to play.

The music was unlike anything the group had ever heard before. After a few moments, a voice echoed down the hall, high-pitched but obviously male. The words were fast, and almost hard to understand.

" _I got no time. I got no time to live. I got no time to live and I can't say goodbye. And I'm regretting having memories of my friends who they used to be beside me before they left me to die_."

The voice came closer, accompanied by footsteps that were in time with the music.

They began to see a figure making its way down the hall. They stopped just beyond the light that illuminated Slappy. As they started singing the chorus, a sense of dread began to fill Stine. He knew who this was, and he expected that they would be upset to see him. He did lock them in a book after all.

Then the chorus ended and another light flicked on.

Standing before them was a humanoid animatronic, wearing a checkerboard vest with striped pants and matching top hat. A black bowtie was nestled in his collar, while a red corsage was tucked in his jacket pocket.

One thing Hannah couldn't help but notice were the black lines that trailed down the animatronic's face from the inner corners of his eyes. If it was a specifically placed design, it sure was strange.

The dread that was filling Stine was now turning to guilt. Despite being an animatronic, this creation of his could show emotion in his eyes like a human. And the sadness he was showing, the pain, the overall _hurt_ , was so powerful that Stine was more than ready to break character and pull him into the most loving hug he could give.

"Papa," With that one word, Stine's heart broke. He was afraid to speak, for he feared that instead of words, cries would come from his mouth in their place.

"Theodore," Stine fought to keep his composure as he said his name. He remembered naming him, looking at the one of his favorite books at the time. A book by Theodore Taylor. From the start he had called him Theodore, but Theodore prefered Theo. And he hated Teddy. Slappy always called him Teddy.

Theo opened his mouth to reply when the music came to another verse. Theo's eyes, which were focused on Stine, became distant, focusing on something that wasn't there. His mouth moved with a will all it's own, moving quickly as the words spilled out.

" _I have this urge. I have this urge to kill. I have this urge to kill to show that I'm alive. I'm getting sick of these apologies from people with priorities that their life matters so much more than mine_."

The group started at him, minds reeling at what they saw. Theo was in a, trance of sorts, like he was a slave to the music. It controlled him.

Slappy was watching Theo, his eyes twinkling with a devilish glint. Stine noticed this, and made the connection. It was not the first time Slappy had done this to Theo, controlling him with the music. It tortured Theo, and Slappy enjoyed every moment of it. Stine was glaring at Slappy when the song switched to the chorus again.

" _So my flashlights on. Stay up till dawn. I got this headache and my life is on the line. I felt like I won, but I wasn't done. The nightmare repeats itself every time_." As Theo sang, a oily tear emerged from his eye, and slid down his face. It was then Hannah realized that those lines on Theo's face weren't a design; they were streaks from every tear he had shed, over time permanently staining his face. When the chorus ended a second time, Theo began to speak immediately, his voice changing to that of an older teenager.

"Why did you lock me away? What did I do wrong? Was it too much?"

"No, Theo. It wasn't too much at all. It's just, I had no choice," Stine attempted to calm Theo.

"No choice? What do you mean?" Theo whimpered.

"It was too dangerous. People were getting hurt," Stine tried to reason with Theo, but to no avail.

"You don't know what it's like, being trapped with him," Theo aggressively jabbed a finger at Slappy, "in a book for thirty years! You don't know what I've gone through," A few tears trickled down Theo's face.

"Theo, let me explain."

"This is what he does to me. He tortures me with this music, for hours and hours and hours on end. He laughs at my pain, and beats me when I try to escape," The tears were flowing freely now, and Theo's voice was starting to crack from the emotional strain. Slappy looked at Theo, an eyebrow raised.

"I wouldn't take what he says to heart, Papa. He has been under a lot of stress the-"

"Shut up!" Theo yelled at Slappy. The doll looked at Theo with disgust and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Now Theo, is that any way to treat-?"

"Just shut up," Theo interrupted Slappy a second time, his voice finally cracking and taking on a robotic edge.

"Slappy, stop," Stine warned the doll. Slappy rolled his eyes, but said nothing else.

"Theo, listen to me. We can fix this, we can make things better."

"How, by locking me in another book?'

"Theo, that's not what I meant."

"It's probably what I deserve," Theo seemed to shrink back into himself as he said this. "A book would be the best place for a monster like me."

"Theo, no."

"With Slappy no less," Stine sighed as Theo kept on with his depressed mumbles. Slappy was making a doll's version of a smirk.

"I'm not going to put you in a book with Slappy," Stine said calmly.

"Why not?" More tears brimmed Theo's eyes. "He's just going to find me anyway," Theo began to back into the darkness.

"He will find you quicker than the ghosts of _The Lost Carnival_ ," Theo's body was now engulfed in shadow, with only his face in the light.

"Theo…" Stine said his name pleadingly.

"Have fun running from him," With that, Theo turned and ran down the hall, passed under the flickering light, and around the corner.

Stine closed his eyes for a second, and when he opened them, he glared at Slappy.

"I'm telling you now Slappy," Stine muttered, jabbing a finger at the doll. "When I'm through with you, you're going to wish I had never written you in," Everyone stood there, watching Stine with widened eyes, especially Hannah. Stine's voice had taken on an edge that made their hair stand up on end. Hannah had never seen Stine so angry, and it scared her.

"Don't worry Papa. I will," Slappy laughed his evil little laugh, and the lights flicked off. When they flicked back on a second later, he was gone. Stine jumped as the key to the padlock fell off the arcade game. He picked it up to find that Zack had already picked the lock and was sliding the bolt back.

* * *

As they ran through the parking lot, Hannah confronted Stine.

"Dad, who was that?" Stine sighed as the rest of the group closed in to listen. As they walked across the street, he explained.

"That was Theodore, one of the last creatures I created. He is in one of my lesser known books, _The Lost Carnival._ He is technically a monster, but, he's not like the others. He's special."

"Special how?" Hannah asked.

"I created him to love, not hate," Everyone gave Stine a strange look.

"I was lonely. I needed someone there to keep me company. I created the rest of my monsters to destroy, and I wanted to write something different for once. Theodore would've stayed by my side while I wrote the horrors of my mind onto the pages of my books. But I wrote him into a book with Slappy, and I had forgotten that until I opened the book to let him out. Theo and I watched in horror as Slappy destroyed the town. I tried to only suck Slappy back in, but he grabbed Theo and pulled him in before I could stop him. I was afraid to open the book again, for fear that Slappy would get out and wreak havoc once more. But, it appears that that has already been taken care of," Stine finished his rant, and took a few deep breaths.

"But, Slappy was in more than one book. How does this work?" Hannah asked. "He's in _Night of the Living Dummy_ and _The Lost Carnival_. Wouldn't there be two of him?" Stine scratched his forehead in confusion.

"That would make sense, but he only appeared once so, I don't know."

"So, what do we do now?" Champ asked. Zach and Hannah shrugged, and looked at Stine.

"Well, the first thing _I_ want to do, is find Theo," Stine said.

"But what about Slappy?" Zach asked.

"Slappy won't let Theo leave his sight for long. He'll follow him wherever he goes, unfortunately torturing him along the way. Find Theo, and we'll find Slappy."

"But how do we find him?" Champ asked.

Stine was about to answer, when he noticed something on the ground. He knelt down, and examined a puddle. He dipped a finger in it and brought it to his nose. He looked away, repulsed.

"Oil from Theo," he said and coughed.

"How do you know it's from him?" Zach asked.

"Theo has a faint smell of, well, an abandoned carnival. Stale carnival food, rusting metal, musty clothing, and that's exactly what that oil smells like. And there appears to be a trail of it ," Stine stood up. "Going...that way," he pointed down a street.

"Follow the black oil road," Champ thought aloud. Everyone turned to look at him.

"Really?" Stine asked. Champ shrugged. Stine sighed heavily, and muttered a 'let's go'.

While walking down the road, Stine began to unconsciously hum "Follow the Yellow Brick Road", and within a few minutes, the rest of the group had joined in.

* * *

 **I Got No Time by The Living Tombstone. Good song. Based off FNaF 4 too, so, yeah. Hope you enjoyed!**


End file.
